Summer camp brought to you by the same folks responsible for Lakeland’s battling robots

By
Jonathan Tressler, The News-Herald

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Thanks to the people behind battling robots at Lakeland Community College, area students for two weeks in June can get up-close and personal with cutting-edge technology that might even make their parents want to take the week off work.

It’s the second year the Alliance for Working Together — or AWT — is offering its Summer Manufacturing Institute, which aims to show young people all over Northeast Ohio the sheer diversity of design, engineering and manufacturing careers practically waiting for them once they finish school.

The program stems from an initiative Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, proposed aimed at getting kids into science, technology and manufacturing careers.

“Sen. Sherrod Brown was instrumental in the development of summer manufacturing institutes,” said AWT Executive Director Alice Cable. “He realized getting students interested in a career had to happen before high school.”

Brown confirmed his commitment.

“Ohio students come from a state with a proud history of innovation and invention and our manufacturing industry is continuing that pioneering tradition today,” Brown said. “We need talented, imaginative young people to become the next generation of Ohio makers and manufacturers.”

Appropriately, then, this program is open to students currently in the fifth and sixth grades.

Cable said the camps are a week each, with one co-ed option and another just for girls.

She said the girls-only-week offering highlights the fact that young women all over the world who are interested in these kinds of careers often need a little extra confidence when it comes to breaking into them, thanks to generations’ worth of stereotypes and misconceptions.

“My son asked me why (he couldn’t participate one of the two weeks) and I told him that sometimes girls need a little more encouragement when it comes to certain careers,” Cable said.

Although not as singularly project-intensive as its annual AWT RoboBots Competition, which plays out at Lakeland Community College in April, the AWT foundation’s summer camps provide a peek into the manifold world of manufacturing.

Roger Sustar is CEO of the Fredon Corporation and has been instrumental in promoting area manufacturing, and manufacturing in general, through his involvement with numerous programs including Robots Battle at Lakeland, where he is a member of the board.

He said programs like these summer camps are all about passing on the knowledge it takes for manufacturing to continue.

“Alll of these kids ... that’s the future,” he said.

He also said the folks who work at his company now get a boost from passing their knowledge along through a program like this.

“These kids — at 10, 11 and 12 — they’re full of pee and vinegar and their excitement and interest is so contagious,” he said. “And our guys... When our guys get an opportunity to show people what we do, I mean, they’re just proud as peacocks.”

He said there are posters that last year’s summer-camp participants made which hang in Fredon’s lunchroom and the employees there are proud about that.

Cable said the camps will each feature three field trips, which will expose the students involved to various aspects of manufacturing. She added that participants will also get involved with take-home projects including building speakers and clocks, with which they’ll work with high-tech equipment like 3-D printers, along with “low-tech” projects involving electromagnetic motors and other pre-2K technology.

Cable said that, in addition to AWT, Fredon and Sen. Brown’s Office, Ohio Means Jobs of Geauga County and Auburn Career Center are also involved, along with Lakeland Community College and a localv McDonald’s, which will provide lunch for a day during the summer camp program.

The summer camp is $150 for each participant and scholarships are available for those who qualify. Visit the AWT summer camp Web page for further information.